Bench Leads the Dallas Mavericks to a Win Over the LA Clippers, 127-114

9165They would take down Doc Rivers’ team, 127-114 for 1-1 in series, and a fresh start.

“The guys off the bench did a tremendous job,” said Rick Carlisle after the match. ” Tery Burke was great, Seth Curry was great, Boban was giving us great minutes.”

Carlisle was praising them because all these guys gave confidence to the teammates in the moments when Luka Doncic sat out due to his foul trouble. The still reigning Rookie of the Year had to go out in the third and most of the fourth. But during that time, his Mavs didn’t back out for an inch, showing that they know how to play even without one of the best players in the league.

Mavs coach Rick Carlisle on how team extended lead after Luka Doncic picked up 5th foul, Luka’s improvement with reducing turnovers, his foul trouble and his leadership pic.twitter.com/cyWBaJme66

— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) August 20, 2020

Doncic was sitting on the bench when Mavs made a 13-2 run to close the third sequence, making their distance a double-digit one. Then, when they kept the gap in the fourth, the Slovenian had to sit out again, but without consequences.

“This is how we’re going to have to win games,” Carlisle added. “Our depth is going to be a big part of it.”

One by one, all the players contributed, without any of them having a more important role than the other. What was especially noticeable is that the bench crew made several stops, and apparently played much better than the starters on the defensive side off the ball. Doc Rivers also praised Dallas’ replacements, saying that their contribution was, in fact, the X-factor in this one.

“I just thought their bench outplayed our bench and our starters,” Clippers coach said.

The Mavs opened the game furiously, scoring 15 points and allowing just 2, not repeating the same mistake from Game 1. Not for one second did the Clippers had the lead in this contest, and that is very refreshing for the Mavs’ fans who saw their team defeating the team from LA for the first time this season.

Luka had a team-high despite his absence from the court in the majority of the second half. He was 8-of-17 from the field for 28 points, with 8 boards and 7 assists. Kristaps Porzingis had 23 and seven rebounds, while Tim Hardaway added 17.

Trey Burke added 16 off the bench, and Seth Curry 15. Boban Marjanovic played 10 minutes, but was extremely efficient during that time, scoring 13 points and grabbing 9 rebounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7tFEIruSTE

On the other side, the Clippers weren’t in their usual rhythm. The possible reason for that was the poor performance of Paul George, who had a bad shooting night, with 4 hits in 17 attempts off the floor. PG scored 14 points with 10 boards but didn’t contribute offensively as planned.

Kawhi Leonard had 35 points and 10 boards, while Lou Williams dropped 23 and 7 dimes off the bench. Marcus Morris had 14 and Montrezl Harrell 10.

“We expect a tough matchup, we expect a tough challenge, but the good thing about it is we’re up for the challenge,” George said.

The Clippers allowed the Mavs to have 50% shooting from the floor, with 44 hits in 88 tries, and to have a much higher three-point percentage than they did. Dallas was 13-for-29, and on the other side, the Clippers 10-for-34. Also, LAC had just 16 assists in this contest.

The next game is this Friday at 9 pm ET.